WIPI Members, As the winter season surrounds us, one very inspirational historian, Peter Palmquist (Jan. 13)and one very young and talented photographer, Winter Bell (Jan. 16) have left their incredible talents behind so that only their work remains for all to remember. The beautiful poem "Time" read by Lady Jane Fellowes at her sister Diana's Requiem Mass at Westminister Abby, speaks volumes of personal history that touches us all.

Time is too slow for those who wait,

too swift for those who fear,

too long for those who grieve,

too short for those who rejoice,

but for those who love, time is eternity.

The author is authorship is unknown.

Please visit the Peter Palmquist Tribute pages for a look into the life of Peter and the MooseSkull image of Winter's that was displayed in the lobby of photo l.a. 2003. Below is the letter sent to WIPI members just following photo l.a. and prior to notifying everyone of this sad loss of great talent.

Jan. 23th letter sent to WIPI member and mailing list

Subject: Stephen Cohen's photo l.a. 2003, Jan 16-19, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

Photo l.a. was just wonderful! 22 out of 30 images sold in our silent auction. We had a fabulous booth, double last year's size, and the work was displayed beautifully. (see www.wipi.org home page for link to images) This year we had the pleasure of having two book signings, on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 18th. Michele Dugan with "A Community of Angels 2002" along with her original 2001 edition and Joan Almond signing her St. Ann's Press edition "The Past in the Present." See Michele's PRO Gallery and Almond's WIPI News feature by NY Rep Susan Scafati on our website.

The color brochure was also successful and appreciated by the artists and the people visiting the booth, we passed out close to 2000 copies! We also had available our two catalog pages of Lauren Gabriel's "Boogie Woogie" and Michele Dugan's "The Magician." Winter Bell's striking image "MooseSkull" hung on the lobby display wall as you entered photo l.a.

We were wired and online...so we had my Ibook there with our website up and running, to display our galleries, feature stories and archives. We had a special printout for Ruth Bernhard's "Trees Dancing" image and biographical information and special tribute pages to Peter Palmquist.

I want to say a huge thank you to Cat Jimenez, right hand, on-the-scene assistant. I just could not have completed the tasks at hand without her, she handled a lot of the prep, volunteers and was there 24/7 for the photo l.a. event. Carrie Villines, another dedicated key on-site volunteer and web support assistant, Sharyn Keller for graphic design, Joanne Warfield for hanging the show along with Linda Sutton, Jill Specht, Ellen Demsky, Kenna Love, Juanita Richeson and Freyda Miller, all who donated time to prep for photo l.a. and/or their on-site support during the event.

We have added new collectors to the market place, along with some of the more classic collectors who purchased our photographers' work. We had lots of visitors, Susan Ehren, B/W Magazine; Linda Kroff, Associate Professor Cal State Fullerton and Society For Photographic Education (SPE, LA Chapter Director); LACMA's Robert Sobieszek; Rock & Roll photographer Henry Diltz, June Bateman; Artists Karen & Tony Barone; actors Eric Etebari and Andrea Andes; artist Rob Buelteman; Stuart Balcomb, TheScreamOnline.com; Ramsay Hawfield, Light Impressions; Richard Risemberg, NewColonist.com; Dave Healy, Paris Photo Lab; lots of WIPI members and many more. We had a constant flow of traffic and excitement about the images and the organization..and people are already asking if we will be back next year..!

Stop by the website to see the images featured at photo l.a. which will stay in place for several months and then move into the archive section. If any of our WIPI photographer members stopped by the booth and took images, please send them along. As usual, I got a new camera and just started shooting...without having time to go over the directions...so I do have a couple images...perhaps some of you have something even better...! Thank you,

Jean Ferro
Photo Artist/President

In addition to Michele Dugan's PROfessional gallery , We have the award winning work of Carol Nye and student photographer Rebecca Vex

WIPI News Features for the January Quarterly include:

"Invasion Training" Wars, riots, terrorist attacks, government overthrows, bombings, car accidents, train wrecks, floods, earthquakes, etc.…all a part or our everyday life as a photojournalist....51 photojournalist killed last year alone! " by Reuter's Photographer Stephanie McGehee, Kuwait

"Bosnia I never had a gun pointed in my face, I never feared for my life, never interviewed a man who would die the next day, a woman who had been gang-raped, a parent who had just buried a child, or a family which had fled the blood-soaked soil of a village burned to the ground in the name of "ethnic cleansing...." by Sara Terry

MARKETING NEWS: Stephanie Morey's Freestyle approach. • Allworth Book Selection • A Getty Presentation, Intellectual Property, is your work copyrighted? • Creating Success, Defining your Visual Integrity and Making a Commitment, by Selina Oppenheim

From the President January 30, 2003
Dear WIPI Members,

Hello, I would like to take the time to express recent events here at WIPI. Just as we were preparing our exhibition for photo l.a. 2003, the sad news came on Wednesday Jan. 15th that Peter Palmquist 66, had been hit by a car on Saturday Jan. 11th, at 7pm in Emeryville, CA and died on Monday, Jan. 13th. Peter was my collaborating force behind WIPI, I spoke to him around 8am that fateful Jan. 11th morning about WIPI's progress and the upcoming photo l.a. It's taken me a moment to write because a disturbing disbelief and sadness filled my heart and soul and the merry-go-round of prep and work for photo l.a. was in progress, not allowing me to surrender to the grief and loss that gripped my moments of brief stillness....

Just after grasping the full impact of Peter's departure and following a successful photo l.a., on Friday Jan. 24, I learned about another tragedy that happened in the same week, 3 days after Peter and the same day photo l.a. opened. It was the sad news that Winter Bell died, 27 years young, from a health related problem. She was found on the morning of April 16th in San Francisco by her Aunt. Winter was to begin her school year at the San Francisco Art's Institute on a full Scholarship... read more